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DiPopolo

Accused drug trafficker and Hells Angel David Giles told undercover police officers that his “brothers” would take over his massive cocaine deal if anything were to happen to him.

Giles tried to reassure officers posing as a South American drug organization that he had big-time backers for a 500-kilogram cocaine deal worth almost $15 million, federal prosecutor Chris Greenwood said in his opening statement Monday in B.C. Supreme Court. Giles referenced his “family” and “brothers” several times during recorded conversations when the police were pushing for guarantees about payment and distribution of the cocaine.

David Giles

Bryan Oldham

When the cops wanted to meet more of Giles’ backers in August 2012, the longtime Hells Angel said he would try to get them to the table.

The next day, “Mr. Oldham, Mr. Giles and a third individual who the Crown alleges is Damiano Dipopolo are observed doing a walk and talk,” Greenwood said.

Damiano Dipopolo

Giles then told police “that he had three long meetings with his family. They are not comfortable coming to the table as they are concerned with respect to conspiracy law and organized crime,”
After the purported drug smugglers continued to push Giles, he brought Oldham to a meeting with some of the cops in Vancouver.

“He confirmed he was one of Mr. Giles’ brothers and that if something happened, he would take over his spot.”

Riiiight says we. One wonders how much will be coming outta this trial. Specifically the amazing cat-like abilities of Mr. Damiano Dipopolo. As an aside, we wonder mightily what is going through the head of Mr. Giles. He miraculously avoids an extended term in prison once whilst rubbing shoulders with Mr. Dipopolo, and what happens the second time?

Perhaps sitting in prison for the next 10 odd years will help him figure out what most have been suspecting for a looooong while already.

The near complete destruction of the East End HA chapter has long been attributed solely to Micheal Plante. Much like the 'random' traffic check whilst the boyz were on their way to a grow rip that blew the Kelowna HA Chapter into oblivion, that straight up bullshit doesn't wash.

What is our little belief? WHO escaped totally untouched both times? Which limping arsonist torched Digstown under RCMP videotaped nose and then proceeded to collect 54k in insurance proceeds anyway? Who has managed to avoid any and all form of police notice whilst continuing to make loot hand over fukkin foot whilst all around him fall continuously like fukkin dominos?

Plante was a multiple rejected cop applicant that, by international HA rules, should not have been anywhere near the club in the first place. He was so damn fragile he cracked the instant he was passed over for 'prospect' status. Plante, clearly, wasn't the only poker the cops had in the fire. He was the necessary whipping boy for when the chit hit the fan with gusto, nothing more.

Mr. Damiano Dipopolo takes exceptional pride in the fact he has "never been charged with a criminal offense". How, the flying fuk, can a career, senior member of an organization that is 1000% all about crime make that claim his entire 'working' life?

Readers might be able to guess what this cowboy is supposing, and that is coming from direct personal experience from HA LiarTard Suzan El-Khatib now.

During the multi-year sting, Micheal Plante went from a bar bouncer and weight lifter who wanted to make a difference to the man responsible for putting 12 of the gang’s members in jail.

It took years for Plante to fully integrate with the East End crew, who were led by John Bryce (sixth from left)

He eventually became a bouncer at a local strip club, the Marble Arch, which doubled as one of the gang’s watering holes. On one night, Plante made the decision to kick out an associate of the Angels who was on a drunken rampage.

The move was seen as smart rather than disrespectful and it earned him a personal thank-you from Louie Robinson, one of the senior Angels and the half-brother of the local chapter’s president John Bryce.

It wasn't until he began to rise up the ranks that Plante began to ride a motorcycle, one the police helped him pay for. Throughout the summer of 2003, he met with police a number of times as an informant, getting paid after providing specifics about times the gang dealt meth or intimidated witnesses. It wasn’t until 2004 that Plante actually became an undercover agent, earning him both immunity from illegal actions and an official salary. In turn, he also had to wear a wire so that police could build up a legitimate case against the Angels.

After months of grunt duties for the gang, Plante was made an ‘official friend', showing that he was making strides and earning their trust.

One milestone came when he was told to get a bag and pick up some guns that Potts had stored at his elderly mother’s home, for fear that they were going to be raided by police. He ended up picking up a collection of machine guns, rifles- and even grenades. He turned them over to the police and made up a series of excuses about why they couldn’t access them.

Anxiety, exhaustion, and frustration finally reached a tipping point for Plante in January 2005, when he was overlooked by the group and not given the title of an official Angel, when they chose the son of John Bryce instead.

Lloyd (Louie) Robinson is pictured outside the clubhouse on East Georgia after it was raided on July 15, 2005.

Angels President John Bryce stands outside the clubhouse after police raid in July 2005

Plante was paid two installments of $500,000- the first after leaving. The second payment came on October 30, 2012, when the final charge of the multi-pronged was upheld and a dozen gang members were found guilty of various charges.

Six pled guilty to drug-related charges, including Jonathan Bryce Jr. Others, including meth cooks and traffickers, were all sentenced as well. Potts faced multiple charges.

A surveillance video obtained by CBC News shows a 2005 incident in the Vancouver downtown area where two members of the Hells Angels jumped the line at a nightclub and punched a bouncer to the ground.

The video shows Ronaldo Lising punching a bouncer outside the Au Bar nightclub on Seymour Street, while Rob Alvarez was kicking him. The May 2005 attack came after the bouncer told the pair to wait their turn.

Lloyd Peter Robinson, son of Louie Robinson, severely beat a cab driver over a $ 5.40 fare in 2013.

Jonathan Bryce Jr

Lloyd Peter Robinson

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We have mixed emotions after viewing this video. One cannot help but judge the man. Does Mr. Rocco Dipopolo appear to have the disposition that would lend itself to the Brandon Hughes hit?

Our opinion doesn't matter. Note the Kingpin Crew T-shirt that appears briefly in this video. The Kingpin Crew WERE a puppet club of the HA in Kelowna

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Brandon Vito Hughes was 28 when he was shot and killed on July 23, 2009

After coming home from a night out at Vancouver's Celebration of Light fireworks show, 28-year-old Brandon Vito Hughes was gunned down outside his North Vancouver home. His father, Kevin Hughes, heard the commotion and ran out to the front gate. He tried in vain to save his son but in the early morning hours of July 23, 2009 Brandon Vito Hughes was pronounced dead in hospital. Five years later, the Lower Mainland's Integrated Homicide Investigation Team issued a public plea for information about the shooting.

"The investigation remains open and active," said Sgt. Adam MacIntosh. "Time and distance can be a factor in our favour in historical investigations. There are people out there who know what happened and we need them to come forward."

Police are urging anyone with information to call IHIT at 1-877-551-4448, email ihittipline@rcmp-grc.gc.ca, or submit a tip anonymously through Crime Stoppers.

Rocco Dipopolo

Donato De Cotiis claimed a number of threats had been made against him and other family members, including Hughes, because of a long-running family feud that had landed in court several times. Donato De Cotiis also said he was warned that people linked to the Hells Angels had been hired "to assault, threaten and/or intimidate" him.

Don De Cotiis, Hayley Winter, Ivano De Cotiis.

Damiano Dipopolo

[18] At some point, on a date which was not clear in the evidence, Mr. Dipopolo won $80,000 in a lottery. He gave his twin brother $30,000 as a gift.

[48] At some point, Mr. Dipopolo acquired a one-third interest in a company called Liquid Zoo Holdings Ltd. On August 23, 2005, Mr. Dipopolo, together with the two other shareholders in Liquid Zoo Holdings Ltd., Messrs. Bruneau and Raffael, signed a promissory note for $350,000 payable to Amacon Management.

[62] Liquid Zoo Holdings executed a mortgage dated May 12, 2006, in favour of Amacon for the amount of $650,000. However, this mortgage was not registered until more than one year later, on August 10, 2007. Mr. Dipopolo appeared to consider the mortgage to be further security for Amacon's $350,000 loan to the three Liquid Zoo Holdings shareholders made about one year earlier, in August 2005.

Lilliana De Cotiis runs the hospitality division of real estate developer Amacon, which she co-owns with eldest sibling Teresa and older brothers Donato, Luca and Marcello. Siblings have input on all aspects of Amacon's corporate operations. De Cotiis and her siblings named their company Amacon, after late father Amalio and mother Concetta.

Amalio was part of the first generation of De Cotiises to arrive in Vancouver. He came with parents Donato and Teresa and three sisters as well as brothers Marcangelo, Inno, Vito and Michael in a staggered migration.

Damiano DiPopolo

Eldest brother Marcangelo eventually had a falling out with his brothers that was serious enough to devolve into legal action. Vito died in his 30s. Inno created his own real estate development company and named it by spelling his own name backwards: Onni.

Youngest brother Michael then founded and still runs Pinnacle International.

Dec. 11, 2005. Vancouver Province A long-running feud in a family whose name is tied to some of Vancouver's biggest real-estate developments has once again spilled into B.C. Supreme Court.

This time, it comes complete with allegations of threats, assaults, intimidation - and even of a contract to kill a family member. In an unusual civil suit, Donato De Cotiis, 44, is seeking a court injunction and damages to protect himself from eight family members named in a statement of claim.

The suit alleges that the eight De Cotiis family defendants "have engaged, hired or employed the defendants Rocco Dipopolo and Damiano Dipopolo to assault, threaten and/or intimidate the plaintiff as an integral part of efforts to intimidate the plaintiff, to interfere in the business, commercial and leisure activities of the plaintiff and to injure the plaintiff." Chow confirmed that police investigated an incident between Donato De Cotiis and the Dipopolos. No charges were laid.

Chow also confirmed that Damiano is suspected by police to be a full member of the Hells Angels' East End Chapter.

In February 2003, Paolo De Cotiis approached Brandon Hughes, the nephew of Donato De Cotiis, at a nightclub on Granville, and threatened "to get" his family.

Sunday, July 26, 2009. The targeted murder of 28-year-old Brandon Vito Hughes in North Vancouver last week was preceded by a tense family feud that included an alleged death threat within the De Cotiis clan, who are connected to massive real-estate developments in the Lower Mainland.

Hughes was found gravely wounded outside 1956 Jones Ave. in North Vancouver. Hughes is grandson of the late construction mogul Marcangelo De Cotiis, whose widow, Addolorata De Cotiis, owns the home at 1956 Jones Ave. Siblings of the De Cotiis family own Onni Group, Pinnacle International and Amacon.

Brandon Vito Hughes

August 6th, 2010. B.C. Court of Appeal issues ruling in De Cotiis family feud. Donato De Cotiis's lawsuit against companies controlled by his uncles Amalio, Inno, and Mike was dismissed. Donato De Cotiis's deceased father Marcangelo, a construction magnate, was also listed as a plaintiff.

"This dispute is only part of a larger family feud that unfolded against a backdrop of profitable corporations and partnerships," Newbury wrote in the court's reasons for judgment. This lawsuit was a spinoff of another major dispute, which was addressed in a 1995 B.C. Supreme Court decision.

"Rocco Dipopolo insisted that he no longer "rolls with the club" despite the fact that his brother Damiano is a full-patch member of the Kelowna chapter, and a former East End member.

A B.C. Supreme Court ruling in the divorce between Damiano Dipopolo and Janette Wu shows some financial links between the twins. The February 2008 ruling says Rocco and Damiano were business partners in a cafe in the 1990s and that Damiano gave Rocco $30,000 from some lottery winnings "on a date which was not clear in the evidence." Rocco Dipopolo's lawyer, Kevin Drolet, sent a letter to The Sun, threatening a lawsuit and stating: "We wish to be clear that neither Mr. Dipopolo nor his businesses are affiliated with the Hells Angels. Mere insinuation of the existence of such a link could cause serious harm to Mr. Dipopolo, his businesses and his reputation. Should you persist, legal action will surely follow."

Kevin Drolet

"Insp. Andy Richards, a biker expert with the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, said Dipopolo at one time was on his way to earning his patch with the East End chapter. "I can confirm that he was a prospect of the club at one point," Richards said.

2011. There’s no dispute over the copyright of the East Van cross at Sixth Avenue and Clark, according to Vancouver artist Ken Lum, who based the art piece on a symbol that he said has been around for decades. The Vancouver Sun reported today (July 12) that Rocco Dipopolo, who they say is a former Hells Angel prospect, approached a Commercial Drive business owner who was displaying photos of the East Van cross, claiming he copyrighted the symbol.

Lum said the City of Vancouver owns the trademark on the neon cross design, which is officially titled Monument for East Vancouver.

An angry Dipopolo said that the image of the cross was first used almost 20 years ago by a Hells Angels puppet club of which he was
a member at the time.

"Mr. Dipopolo had other choice words, though mostly directed at Ken Lum, the artist whose photo of the cross was installed as city art in January 2010. He said Mr. Lum “took that design off a God damn, fucking park bench. Okay. That design belongs to us — I got a tattoo on my arm from 1993. So where did I get the design from — a park bench?”

July 2005. "The biker gang owns more than 20 homes in the city and more than a dozen businesses including Champagne Charlies on Lawrence Ave., Digstown Clothing on Pandosy St., Pier Marine Pub in Westbank and Splash's Nite Club on Leon Ave.

McKinnon says patrons who frequent those businesses are "indirectly supporting the Hells Angels."

A specialized police unit that investigates crime on the waterfront will be cut by almost a third after Port Metro Vancouver axed $400,000 a year of its funding. The cut takes effect Jan. 1, meaning the RCMP-led National Port Enforcement Team will be reduced from 13 to nine officers.

The funding cut comes just months after a Vancouver Sun investigation revealed that at least 27 Hells Angels, associates, criminals and other gangsters work as longshoremen on the Port Metro Vancouver docks. Police documents show an unaddressed organized-crime problem on the waterfront dating back more than 20 years.

Damiano Dipopolo

Police told the Sun that organized crime maintains its foothold on the waterfront for strategic purposes — so drugs and other contraband can be smuggled in some of the more than 1.5 million containers that pass through the four container terminals at Port Metro Vancouver every year.

Just over three per cent of the containers arriving are screened by the Canada Border Services Agency.

The Sun identified at least six full-patch Hells Angels who are active members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. Some have worked on the docks for years, like Al DeBruyn, a senior White Rock Hells Angel who started in 1981.

Other Hells Angels joined the longshoremen more recently. Rob Alvarez of the Nomads chapter and Damiano Dipopolo started on May 24, 2012. West Point Hells Angel Ryan Sept started just last year, nominated by another full-patch member of his chapter.

The Sun documented 27 active longshoremen with gang or criminal links from various sources of information, including public records and union membership lists. That number doesn’t include the “inactive” members of the union who are also Hells Angels — East End President John Bryce, Nomads Angel Gino Zumpano, Haney member Vince Brienza, West Point member Larry Amero and former Vancouver president Norm Krogstad.

KELOWNA – An alleged former gangster in Kelowna has pleaded guilty to a cocaine drug trafficking charge. In 2013, the Kelowna RCMP Federal Serious and Organized Crime unit began investigating drug trafficking activities of the Kingpin Crew, which police said had ties to the Hells Angels.

Police say Quentin Michael James,37, was arrested in December of that year after he attempted to mail three ounces of cocaine to an address in Alberta.

Investigators seized various amounts of drugs, including cocaine, marihuana, MDMA, methamphetamine, ecstasy and psilocybin. Also seized was a bulletproof vest, brass knuckles, defensive batons, assorted rounds of ammunition and approximately $100,000 in cash.

James was later charged with five drug trafficking offenses, two counts of possessing prohibited weapons and one count of possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose. James returns to court in February for sentencing.

Former police agent Micheal Plante met with Vancouver Sun crime reporter Kim Bolan in late 2012 to tell his incredible story of infiltrating the East End chapter of the Hells Angels and helping police put 12 men behind bars. He did not disclose his new name or residence.

Unemployed, Plante reads about Hells Angels Ronaldo (Ronnie) Lising and Francisco (Chico) Pires getting convicted for selling cocaine at the Marble Arch — the first-ever convictions of full-patch members of the gang in B.C.

Micheal Plante visits Burnaby's Hi-Way Choppers, owned by East End president John Bryce, to buy shirts showing support for the Hells Angels.

John Bryce

Plante works out at Fitness Quest gym and meets people in the Hells Angels program such as John Punko, Ronaldo (Ronnie) Lising and Juel Stanton.

While working as a doorman at the Marble Arch hotel, Plante meets Randy Potts, as well as senior East End member Louie Robinson

David (Gyrator) Giles calls Plante into the boardroom at the East End clubhouse to make his speech about wanting to be a Hells Angel and Plante earns "official friend" status.

The door of Randy Potts's wife's house is kicked in by police searching for pre-cursor chemicals used to make methamphetamine.

Plante gets a hockey bag, then goes to Potts's mom and step-dad's house to pick up East End arsenal of guns and explosives.

Plante is injured at Brandi's nightclub when a UN gang member, accompanied by leader Clay Roueche, jumps him. HA member Ronaldo (Ronnie) Lising is in the club, but doesn't help Plante.

Jonathan Bryce Jr., a hangaround and son of East End president John Bryce, does cocaine deals with Plante, including in the clubhouse.

Full-patch Damiano Dipopolo holds a party at the Drake and Plante works at it.

Jean Violette tells Plante to go with Bryce Jr. to beat up Glen Louie, a North Vancouver man.

East End clubhouse raided by police July 15, 2005, 18 people charged.

Plante gives testimony in the trial of four full-patch Angels — Randy Potts, Ronnie Lising, John Punko and Jean Violette. They face a range of charges, from extortion, assault to firearms and explosives possession to working for a criminal organization.

Former East End member and Kelowna vice-president David Giles charged in cocaine conspiracy case along with full-patch Bryan Oldham and five associates.

Federal Crown prosecutor stays the final charges in E-Pandora, freeing Plante from further obligations and allowing him to collect the rest of his $1-million payout for his work on the case.

The East End Hells Angels pictured in an undated photo police seized during the raid in July 2005.

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The Sun has identified at least six full-patch Hells Angels who are active members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. Some have worked on the docks for years, like Al DeBruyn, a senior White Rock Hells Angel who started in 1981.

Other Hells Angels joined the longshoremen more recently. Rob Alvarez of the elite Nomads chapter and Kelowna Angel Damiano Dipopolo started on May 24, 2012. West Point Hells Angel Ryan Sept started just last year, nominated by another full-patch member of his chapter.

The Sun has documented 27 active longshoremen with gang or criminal links from various sources of information, including public records and union membership lists. That number doesn’t include the “inactive” members of the union who are also Hells Angels — East End President John Bryce, Nomads Angel Gino Zumpano, Haney member Vince Brienza, West Point member Larry Amero and former Vancouver president Norm Krogstad.